All Forum Posts by: Anthony Giannette

Just my observations watching rental action on 3500 doors. Inventory of downtown Seattle apartments is up from last year quite a bit. Tenants who could not rent downtown last year, now can find new and old buildings to choose from. Maybe still high rent but the space is now available. I’m seeing studios rent higher than my mortgage and utilities combined. I am sure the impact is felt in Maple Valley and Covington.

I keep a list of folks I've met over the years and my company has a list of proven contractors. The best one on my list is Reputable Electric. This is not a solicitation as these guys simply do good work and deserve the mention.

@Jennifer W.

Inventory under the $300K mark is non-existent on the MLS. Buyers are turning to condos and PUD Townhomes just to get out of renting. Rents went up 40% in the City of Renton in select areas during 2016. Some places had their rents more than double. I am seeing more REO on the MLS as well. Banks are jumping on the seller market band-wagon.

@Tawnie Vinitnantharat

You know, with the right software, the exact bill can be expense-billed to the tenants. If you already use Quickbooks, this is an easy maneuver.

@Lindsey Andrews

Investors do everything as you stated. The most successful remain flexible. Sell when the market peaks and buy into good deals when available. So here is a question I have for you: If you sell the rental and use the proceeds to pay down your current mortgage, what capital will you be using for a future investment?

How will you get into fix and sell strategies? I only ask since this year will be a hot market for renovators with very high profits expected.

@Pete Kelly @Chad Hotovec @Nate Nook

Hello Pete, a bit late responding. I've been using accounting software for over 20 years now. There are all levels of cost and function. Quickbooks is the de-facto king of the small business world but it is still far from the best. If you are new to it and contemplating using it, run away! It really is a very powerful program and requires hours of operational time before you can make it dance.

QB is good only if you own the property, know how to force it to recognize rents, automate the billing monthly to track rents due and are familiar with expense billing. QB has a lot of functionality. I find it cumbersome for business owners due to the learning curve and the squirrel factor of those quantity of functions. Customized invoices, online payments, automated reconciliation (not fully automated) and a hundred other nifty toys. 

Here are management packages to look into:

• Buildium (Inexpensive for 25+ units) Easy to use, makes sense. Must be watched when applying deposits to expenses though. We write checks straight out of the trust account to keep it from flipping out. Good portal for tenants. Substandard for owners. Good for investors.
• AppFolio (Expensive at $250 minimum) Professional software. Let your bookkeeper work on this one as it does a couple weird things in the background. Has a great onsite portal for tenants and owners. Good for Management companies.
• PropertyWare (expensive) This one is slow and clunky. Does all the things a management company would want except track commissions correctly. Has a great onsite portal for tenants and owners. Good for management companies who are not in a hurry to post rents every month. Did I say it was clunky?
• Yardi (Extremely Expensive) Only a pro should be in here. It still uses old style interfaces. It's ugly, clunky, CPAs love it. I unloaded this one before testing the tenant and owner portals. Drove me crazy.
• Quickbooks, Peachtree, MYOB, AccountEdge, Xero, Freshbooks, Quicken and Moneyworks are all professional general accounting software. None have the built in need to keep tenant and owner money separate. The user has to be aware at every step but can be done.
• MS Excel: Used by fortune 500 companies the world over due to its easy way of keeping the report the same year after year. Multiple worksheets in one workbook makes for keeping running ledgers easy. This is the simplest of them all once template is made.

I'm running on. There is a lot out there. I've mentioned the ones my field led me into. The biggest thing to watch for is the company's own list of functions. Many times these are not exactly accurate.

@Matt Gragg

Exactly. The MLS is the place for "final sale". Listings here should be move-in ready with no more work needed. Occasionally a bank will list something with a bit more work needed but this is if they want to open the world up to offerings before lowering prices just to see if the market will capitulate to their high priced property. Sometimes it works.

In Washington, concentrate on Silverdale, Bremerton and the road to Tacoma. You will always find decent rentals near a shipyard especially if the houses are over 60 years old like Bremerton. Opportunity is in short term leases and moderate turnover...keeps your rents adjusting.

@Matt Gragg

MLS buyers are beginning to consider Enumclaw as not too far away for their jobs in Seattle. 20 years ago, I would laugh at anyone considering such an insane commute. But it is happening since incomes are forcing folks to stay at the 300k mark.

I am also seeing new buyers on the market due to the impending rise of interest rates. Want to get in under the wire.

Believe it or not, your quote is reasonable. You should get a 2nd opinion of course from a termite specialist. Have you asked about what materials these termites can damage? Could be more than wood pulp at risk here.